For years - ten of them, to be exact - the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games have retreated into the kind of obscurity only wistful nostalgia can occasionally dispel. They weren’t particularly outstanding games, but they were packed full of characters, lore, and storylines pulled straight out of Marvel’s vast archive. This was back when superhero properties spawned a good game once in a blue moon, and before Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man turned comic book geekery into a billion dollar industry.

Since then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to rule the silver screen, while DC has held a firm and unyielding grip on caped video game heroism. With Avengers: Endgame having made more money than the Queen, God and JK Rowling combined, there’s never been a better time to tap into that mainstream love and brand recognition for Marvel’s sprawling cast of characters. So while it isn’t a shock to see Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order touch down in 2019 - complete with its own, more traditional take on Thanos and the Infinity Stones - it is surprising to see it eschew its old multiplatform ways in favour of Nintendo Switch exclusivity.

With Nintendo now on publishing duties (Activision is clearly focused purely on guaranteed money makers like Call of Duty), development duties for this third entry now sits in the hands of a Japanese studio for the first time. Unlike Raven and Vicarious Visions before it (they of CoD and Skylanders fame), Team Ninja brings years of experience working on some of the best hack ‘n’ slash games of all time in Ninja Gaiden and, more recently, the Dark Souls-esque Nioh. Which is interesting, because unlike those two series - which placed success on your speed and accuracy - The Black Order is much more of a loose arcade experience geared towards rewarding group play than punishing solo gauntlets.

Boiled down to its basic metahuman ingredients, The Black Order is a co-operative arcade brawler that enables you to fight hordes of enemies as some of your favourite Marvel superheroes and villains. When you start off you have access to only a small group of heroes (including The Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and a few extras), but you’ll gradually unlock more as you progress through the main story. The real fun comes from choosing the best team of four to unite, and experimenting to see which ones work best as a squad. For instance, having a ranged character such as Scarlet Witch provides a great means of support, while Wolverine’s speed makes him deadly in the middle of a crowd.

The synergy attacks from Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 return, and with more characters to choose from than ever before, selecting your team also poses the question of how well each hero/villain will link up with another. Thor’s electrical prowess makes him a perfect accompaniment as he increases the intensity of his thunder strikes, while Black Widow can utilise explosives to creatively control crowds. These attacks are really easy to initiate too, so all you have to do is hold ‘R’ and press the relevant direction on the D-pad. The only caveat is that you need to be relatively close to each character in order to successfully perform these group attacks, which will force you to fight a little smarter in co-op. In terms of single-player, you’ll often have to be more aware of where your other teammates are and dodge over to them to initiate the correct manoeuvre.

In practice, The Black Order plays and looks a lot like the modern LEGO Marvel Super Heroes games, what with the large roster of interchangeable characters and levels that span multiple locales from Marvel lore. There’s even the occasional environmental puzzle - such as traversing a Takeshi’s Castle-style maze full of switches and force fields - and the odd bit of platforming. But, for the most part, you’ll be running from one room to the next, smashing up a load of goons and before taking on a boss or two. It’s proof that the developer has nailed the formula that served the previous two games so well, but the wild melee nature of its combat does leave it feeling a little soulless.

In terms of finesse, The Black Order isn’t quite up to the standards of Ninja Gaiden, but the inclusion of more powerful enforcers (who possess both rechargeable armour and health bars) alongside regular goons, does introduce some semblance of tactics mid-battle. The key here is to utilise heroes with powers more suited to draining armour at a faster rate (such as Thor) or having one member of your team utilise heavy attacks. Boss fights are often quite inventive, such as battling Doctor Octopus while riding down a lift shaft or taking down a symbiotic amalgam of Venom and Electro. While very few of them are that challenging, they’re nonetheless an entertaining way to plunder Marvel’s deep well of foes.

One issue that dogged the previous games returns for The Black Order in the form of one very unpredictable camera. For a mostly linear arcade brawling experience, the game’s camera too often lets the action spill out of frame, forcing you to dodge or run back into view, even if it leaves you open to attack. This can be a real issue when you’re playing in co-op as the camera zooms in and out at random as it struggles to compensate for the players spread across the screen (although the game will warp players who stray too far back to the main group, which can be just as annoying). However, the problem is just as present when playing solo with the AI at your side. Perhaps it’s the over-reliance on corridor-set locales, but it can be a very frustrating niggle.

It’s also very easy to lose track of what’s going on, especially when you and three other characters are battling 30 or more enemies on-screen at once; with impact effects on-screen and objects shattering here and there, tracking the chaos on-screen can be a challenge even at the best of times, a problem that’s all the more apparent when playing in handheld mode. After a couple of hours it does become easier to discern where you are on the battlefield while 20 ninjas are trying to slice your head off, and you can manually select a more zoomed in perspective, so it’s an issue that Team Ninja has clearly tried to address.

However, for all these little issues, The Black Order is a really enjoyable throwback to the days of SNES/Mega Drive classics such as Captain America and The Avengers. It hasn’t done anything particularly new to the core gameplay, but being able to play solo, locally with a friend or online with up to three other like-minded super strangers does help this familiar formula fit the remit of gaming in 2019. As a Nintendo Switch exclusive, it also runs very smoothly, even when four players are clobbering away together on-screen. Character models do get a little jaggy in places, but the cartoonish visuals help counter that. It might be an unusual choice as a platform exclusive, but it’s a must for Marvel devotees and a silly and over-the-top arcade brawler that’s going to tick many a co-op box.

Conclusion

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order isn’t a groundbreaking, narrative-heavy reinterpretation of the comic characters you know and love, but then again neither were the first two games. In that regard, it’s a very faithful sequel that mines the vast roster of characters from the comics while including plenty of nods to the current state of the more modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it doesn’t do anything particularly new or outstanding, it embraces the brainless fun of its brawler combat with gusto, and it’s at its absolute best when played with a team of player-controlled supers.

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Bearded malcontent Dom has been writing about games for so long he's practically forgotten what reality looks like. Over his career he's written for just about every site and mag out there. You'll almost always find him catching Pokémon or yelling at dragons in Skyrim.

I had this game preordered and paid in full. Then, I watched 15 minutes of gameplay and was bored to tears. Not my style. I’m glad for those looking forward to this, are getting a good game. Me? I’ll just wait for Astral Chain instead. Have fun!

Awesome. Since i’m a fan of Marvel, i’ll be picking this up. Not right away because there are other games I wanna get, but eventually. The first 2 MUA games were really awesome. Glad the 3rd one is too.

This is the kind of dumb fun summer game I need in my life right now. Some decent scores (especially the 8/8/8/9 from Famitsu), and the announcement of Moon Knight, Blade, Punisher and Morbius for the Marvel Knights DLC has me right stoked on this one.

It’s a stupid thing to complain about....but I’m going to anyway. There are just too many games coming out that I want. Just bought Mario Maker, but God Eater and Dragon Quest Builders just came out. Now this and Fire Emblem are arriving. Astral Chain next month followed by Pokémon, Daemon X and Dragon Quest 11 the month after and Luigi’s Mansion the month after that!

@templag I AM looking for epic action. You’d think a Marvel mashup of these proportions would provide such a thing. But, if epic is what I’m looking for (and I am) Platinum rarely does me wrong. Which is why ... Astral Chain!

Every one of these games has been a solid 8 for me and plenty of fun to play. It's been a long time since I was mashing buttons with friends all night on these things... wonder if I can convince the wife.

I’ve heard performance isn’t an issue, which was a concern given what some of trailers showed off. I’m still thinking that this one will get a significant price reduction in due time. I’ll nab it for 30 on a digital sale, 6 months from now.

Yeah I watched Digital Foundry’s video too. The performance is definitely inconsistent. For whatever reason, Team Ninja just hasn’t been able to make a rock steady game in terms of performance on Switch. However, this is what DF does, they really critique tech specs hard. Are you gonna notice a frame rate of 25 vs 30? Most people can’t, but these things are good to know before you buy.

Just found out both of my copies are delayed and won't be delivered until Saturday😑. The game looks great though and I can't wait to try out the local wireless multiplayer. Red Faction is keeping me busy until then (such a fun game). Well that and Mario maker 2 plus CTR.

@Realness I had a chance to try it at Best Buy, and I was bored watching others play. Once I played the game felt great and it completely changed my opinion of it. I say try it if you were interested in it in the first place.

@TempOr Interestingly Endgame is still getting closer and closer to beating Avatar, at least when not adjusted to inflation, being currently just shy of under $6 million to go. There are cinemas out there that will show movies for many months (Captain Marvel is still being tracked for example), so I think Endgame could very well crawl its way slowly to the finish line, maybe just in time for the Home Media releases as I'm sure they'd love to slap "Take home the highest grossing non-adjusted for inflation movie of all time!" slogan on the Blu Ray/DVD ads. XD

@Myox77 My buddy is picking it up. I was planning on giving it a go at his place to see if playing it would sway me. I’m down with the “try before I buy” mentality. So I will. I’ll be honest with you, Bayonetta has set a certain standard with me concerning action games. Between GoW and Bayonetta, you could say I’m a spoiled brat. Actually, I am. I’m a spoiled brat. There, I said it.

Still looking forward to it, and plan to pickup tomorrow to fill the gap after the Splatfest and wait until Fire Emblem. Still I want to sink a bunch of hours into this one and level up characters prior to the expansion pass content coming.

been reading reviews for this on other sites and man people was expecting way too much for an MUA game, they wanted a grand but focused story, the game informer one actually criticizes it for introducing more characters. can you imagine if this game out and it only had a "few" characters? The roster is what makes these games.

@Quincy In the comics he's a standard blond square-jawed guy, but at the same time the GotG had blue uniforms (like the ones at the end of the first movie) and his mask was more of a helmet, giving him a distinct soldier look that may be a hero as easily as a villain.

I’m a big fan of Marvel, but the gameplay for this seems to be diablo on a Marvel theme. I hate the mindless button mashing of Diablo in story mode, where it’s almost impossible for me to die, barely any strategy at all. Isn’t a rating of 8 way too high for this?

@Woosh193 Yeah, I've been excited to show a 60fps game to a friend only to have them say they couldn't look at it because it made them sick. I've only had that happen with VR and it doesn't seem to matter if it's 30fps vs 60fps. For me it's mild, and I can just keep playing, but not for nearly as long as I could if it was just on a TV. Darksiders is great on Switch. I love that it has a 60fps mode that works in both handheld and docked modes!

Wow i’m hyped. I loved the first two, they were mindless but fun and this looks no different. I think some reviewers expect too much from this game when it really is supposed to be good old fashioned fun.

Neither MUA 1 or 2 were masterpieces but I loved them both for what they were, really fun with a fair amount of replayability. Sounds like 3 is shaping up the same. Hopefully it does well so I don't have to be in my 50s when MUA 4 comes out.

I think I'm still going to be able to get this pretty soon as it floated on and off my radar, ha.

@Angelic_Lapras_King@Kalmaro@TempOr And it still hasn't reached everywhere with the re-release yet iirc, so it should keep some kinda pace going for a bit still. IW didn't totally leave theaters til like early fall, right? It's only a little over $5m right now to go and Endgame HAS already beaten Avatar in regards to its (unadjusted?) original theatrical run record mind you. 👀

Glad this seems to be reviewing well on most sites. I was getting it regardless, already used a voucher to pre-purchase, but it’s nice to know those who have played say it’s a solid game. Cannot wait to play 4 player co-op with my kids. The Black Order is in for big trouble.

Bought this on day of release. Enjoying it, mainly because it's Marvel rather than it being a fighting game. There is depth as it progresses but it's all about button mashing to begin with. Main issue is the camera angles. You can loose your lead character when entering small rooms or tight spaces. Not at all disappointed with spending £50 on this. Will play it online once I get a grip with all the moves and power ups.

I started off playing it on hand-held. I thought the cinematics were cool, but the gameplay itself was rough. Frame rate drops, hard to tell what the heck was going on (5/10). I played it docked and thought it was a lot better - framerate was much more stable and I could figure out what I was supposed to be doing (6/10). I played it with my son local cop and we actually had a good time (7/10). It is a very mediocre game though, and without the fantastic character roster it would be nothing.

Well........what a disappointment. Save yourself form wasting your life and after 10 mins put it down as it’s all the same with different characters and moves. Light and heavy attacks are no different at all. Crap game getting traded in Monday

It captures the spirit of Marvel and my nostalgia for this series. It's not an amazing game, but it's really fun. I've had some frame rate issues, but the game plays very well for the most part. It's fun trying out different characters. If you just want a fun beat em up with your favorite Marvel characters on the go, this game is perfect for you.

Unfortunately I just cannot get into this game, it’s very bland and unlike previous installments it pushes you to stick with a team throughout. I loved the first two but this one feels empty, the environments aren’t nearly as destructible, no unique dialogue between certain characters. It felt very half baked to me.